Yet another Ed-U-Card game with flip animation on the back. This one, called Easy 3’s, features an eclectic assortment of characters from the King Features Syndicate stable. It has characters from Thimble Theatre, but not Popeye. It has Dagwood, but not Blondie. And the animation stars that peculiar mutant kid, Henry. When I was a kid I thought Henry and Popeye were related because they had similar chins and were similarly homely.

The game itself enjoins players to collect three fragments of each character to form a whole. The instructions call it “A new game of educational fun for children. Helps train powers of observation and relationship needed in developing reading skills.”

Another find from a corner of the closet. According to the cover blurb, this book is the first published collection of cartoons by Virgil Partch, who identified himself on his cartoons as VIP. ‘Funny Cartoons by VIP’ is a book I discovered and read when I was a young kid.

Another Ed-U-Card game, with flip animation on the back of the deck. Play-wise, this game (called Casper and his TV Pals) is functionally identical to the Popeye deck, with Harvey Comics characters swapped out to replace the Thimble Theater bunch.

Among the characters selected for use in the game is Little Audrey, who was created by Paramount Pictures’ Famous Studios to replace the Little Lulu series. She later starred in a comic book series first published by St. john, and later by Harvey Comics.

I was one of the early students at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey, and as such, would occasionally be treated/subjected to the terrifying advent of Joe Kubert, comic book legend, looking over my shoulder while I was still trying to find my way around a piece of drawing paper and which end of a pencil was up. And once in a while, he’d excuse me from my chair and say, “Let me show you…”

Yesterday while rummaging in the basement I uncovered a box of keepsakes I had all but forgotten. Among the items in the box were several decks of card games I and my siblings (as kids) used to entertain ourselves during visits to our grandparents.

This Popeye Card Game is one of several we played that were manufactured by Ed-U-Cards Mfg. Corp L.I.C. of New York. The instructions to this game states that the rules are similar to “Rummy.” The attraction for me, however, was the flip-card animation that was a part of many of these Ed-U-Card games, as you can see in the video.

Here’s your chance to grab a copy of Cap’n Catnip #2, written by me and drawn by the Cap’n’s co-creator, Tim Fuller! Backup atory by me and the great Daryll Collins! It will be waiting for you at my booth, #227, at the Cincinnati Comic Expo! Click for details and I’ll tell you more about Cap’n Catnip later.

Saturday’s ‘Superheroes!’ Presentation by the Cincinnati Pops at Taft Theatre was more than I was expecting. I had looked forward to a replay of 2013’s amazing ‘Superheroes!’ concert, but instead found that the show had been refashioned into a full-blown musical, charting the adventures of heroes Conduktor and Rubáto, and villains Purrfect Pitch and Otto Tüün, as portrayed by members of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. The plot had the heroes laying waste to the bad guys’ scheme to replace live music with electronic, and — as an aside — destroy the world with a phalanx of gigantic tuning forks. An origin story was tucked in there as well. Songs from Hercules, The Wiz, Newsies, and Hairspray were repurposed to help tell the story along with selections from the Pops’ original Superheroes! concert. Great fun to see the characters I co-created with Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell live onstage.

Many of the kids, and even parents, in the audience came dressed in their best superhero outfits, and conductor Russell and I had a great time meeting attendees and signing programs and masks for them afterward.

Many thanks to the Cincinnati Pops team and the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati!

While continuing to sort through boxes that were packed away after the house flood, I discovered this page from the Dayton Daily News, August 16, 2004, announcing the opening of Comics and Games Emporium — How I got it or why I saved it, I can’t guess, unless it was just my custom at the time to file away articles about any area comic book activity that I stumbled across.
The gentleman in the picture, the owner of the Dayton comics shop, is Jim Broughton, whom I wouldn’t properly meet until a decade later. Jim and I became friends at the bi-monthly ASH Comics and Toy Shows in Indianapolis a few years ago, and until I ran across this newspaper clipping, I never connected him to the comics shop in the story.
I also never did get to Comics and Games Emporium — and apparently I missed my chance — but Jim Broughton, with Dan Taylor, now operate a great store, Jim & Dan’s Comics & Collectibles in West Alexandria, OH, and also host a quarterly comics convention at Wright State University which I enjoy and recommend (the most recent one was this past Sunday!).
Today is also Jim’s birthday, and I wish him a happy one and many more!